News & Cruise Reviews

Here we share the latest small-ship cruise news and first-person cruise reviews and round-ups from our team of globetrotting writers. If you've got a penchant for small-scale travel aboard boats, yachts, tall ships and mini cruisers, then enjoy the ride through our sea of stories about small-ship cruising.

UnCruise Alaska — Review of Their Wild & Woolly Cruise Aboard Wilderness Legacy (2026)

UnCruise Alaska — Review of Their Wild & Woolly Cruise Aboard Wilderness Legacy (2026)

by | Jan 14, 2026 | , , , , , , , , , | 0

Wilderness Legacy Cruise Ship Review By Peter Knego (Photo Above: The handsome Wilderness Legacy,...

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Bella Desgagnés Cargo Passenger Cruise Review (2026) — Exploring the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Bella Desgagnés Cargo Passenger Cruise Review (2026) — Exploring the Gulf of St. Lawrence

by | Dec 21, 2025 | , , , , , , | 0

Bella Desgagnés Cargo Passenger Cruise By Aimée Laberge Natashquan, Harrington Harbour,...

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About Us

Heidi and Ted HEIDI SARNA

I'm up to 78 countries and 110+ cruises worldwide, and it's the small ship journeys that I love writing about most. And so QuirkyCruise.com was born, an excellent research tool for planning your own unforgettable small ship trip.

THEODORE W. SCULL

I have traveled between all continents by sea and cruised along three dozen rivers. Ships and travel are in my blood, and so is writing. My journeys have translated into many books and many hundreds of articles.

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Our Small Ship Cruise Reviews & Articles

If you can imagine it, we’ve cruised it! With reviews, articles and destination overviews, we’ve got you covered.

The Chesapeake Bay — A Small-Ship Cruising Guide

The Chesapeake Bay — A Small-Ship Cruising Guide

The Chesapeake Bay By Theodore W. Scull In the eastern United States, the Chesapeake Bay, fringed by the states of Maryland and Virginia, forms the country’s largest estuary measuring 200 north-south miles. Its present brackish expanse, only about 3000 years old,...

Hurtigruten Sells 1964-built Lofoten, its Oldest Ship

Hurtigruten Sells 1964-built Lofoten, its Oldest Ship

Hurtigruten Sells 1964-built Lofoten By Ted Scull Aficionados, do not despair! With almost any ship, aged 56, one would expect the next destination would be the last — a scrapyard where ships die. Nothing doing for this workhorse, having held down a proud place in a...

RUNNING on Waves

RUNNING on Waves

Running on Waves One of the world’s largest sailing yachts, the 42-passenger Running on Waves is a tall ship built with classic proportions and modern technology. It was built by the Polish superyacht yard Segel Masten Yachten and launched in 2011. This luxury...

TRADEWIND Voyages (DEFUNCT)

TRADEWIND Voyages (DEFUNCT)

Tradewind Voyages 2023 UPDATE: This company is currently not operating the Golden Horizon, as the ship is laid up once again due to various disputes. Golden Horizon as completed is a near replica of 1913’s France II, the world’s largest square-rigged vessel....

SKARV Lines

SKARV Lines

Skarv Lines Skarv Lines is an owner-operated, single vessel, small cruise ship company that offers rugged adventures around Scotland’s incomparable Hebrides. More unusually they also venture to the country’s Orkney archipelago and Scotland’s East Coast. While there is...

ATLAS Ocean Tours

ATLAS Ocean Tours

Atlas Ocean Tours Atlas Ocean Tours has a mighty powerful name for a company that is the smallest QuirkyCruise ship operator we have covered thus far. One-week trips explore the southern part of Haida Gwaii (formerly Queen Charlotte Islands) in a patch of Canadian...

QuirkyCruise News: Windstar's Star Breeze Stretched & Transformed

QuirkyCruise News: Windstar's Star Breeze Stretched & Transformed

Star Breeze Stretched And Transformed by Anne Kalosh. Windstar Cruises' Star Breeze has just emerged from what was heralded as the most challenging cruise ship lengthening ever undertaken. Besides being cut in half to gain a new midsection, the vessel built in 1989 as...

ARANUI Cruises (C.P.T.M.)

ARANUI Cruises (C.P.T.M.)

Tahiti-based ARANUI 5 Compagnie Polynesienne de Transport Maritime (C.T.P.M.) is a French Polynesian shipping line owned by the Wong family who have operated passenger-freighter ships in the remote South Pacific Marquesas Islands for three decades and cargo service...

ST LAWRENCE Cruise Lines

ST LAWRENCE Cruise Lines

St Lawrence Cruise Lines This one-ship line, started in 1981, is family-owned and based in Kingston, Ontario. In 2016 Jason Clark took over as president from his uncle, Bob Clark, who once ran it with his brother. The ship, the Canadian Empress, is a composite...

Swan Hellenic New Build & Other Small-Ship Updates

Swan Hellenic New Build & Other Small-Ship Updates

Swan Hellenic New Build & Other Updates By Anne Kalosh. The Swan Hellenic brand is going to get a bit bigger with its third expedition cruise new build just ordered at Helsinki Shipyard. "We see the increase in demand for experiences that are truly out of the...

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